PART VDL
ADMIMSTRATIVE LAW

Report of the Committee on Ministers' Powers (H.M. Stationery Office, 1932.

Cmd. 4060) (cited as Af.?.£.).

Principles of Administrative Law, by J. A. G. Griffith and H. Street (Pitmans).
Cases in Constitutional Law, by Sir David Keir and F. H. Lawson, Section V.

4th ed. (Oxford University Press).
Concerning English Administrative Law, by Sir Cecil Carr (Oxford University

Press).
Law of the Constitution, by A. V. Dicey, 9th ed., Appendix, Section I.

(Macmillan).

Justice and Administrative Law, by W. A. Robson, 3rd ed. (Steyens).
Governmental Liability, by H. Street (Cambridge University Press).

CHAPTER 1.
THE NATURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF POWERS.
c
^Introductory. ADMINISTRATIVE law is the law relating to the organisation and
services performed by the various administrative agencies of govern-
ment. It deals with the powers of all such bodies and determines
their rights and duties. In every State it has been the experience of
the present century that there has been a vast increase in the activities
of government and therefore of the volume and importance of
administrative law. It is in the field of discretionary powers over
persons and property that disputes most frequently arise.. Hence
came the tendency of .some lawyers to confine the term, administraj
tive law, to jurisdiction of a judicial nature exercised by administral
tive authoritieToveTthe rights and property of private individuals]
The question, how far can the courts control the exercise of dis-
cretionary power is one of the most difficult problems which engage
the attention of the lawyer. But he is equdly concerned with the
important constitutional issues which are raised by the relationship
between Parliament and the various administrative agencies. Minis-
terial responsibility lies at the root of representative government;
it may be impaired if too wide a scope is given to an indepen-
dent agency. The supremacy of Parliament is weakened by the
unrestricted delegation to the Executive of power to legislate. The
independence of the judges becomes merely academic in importance
if control over adjudication should pass from their hands. The more
rapidly the functions of government expand, the more important it